The full skill tree: CS fundamentals, DSA, system design, engineering practice, languages, security, behavioral & leadership, and senior-specific skills. Part of Senior SWE Roadmap.
Tags mark priority (#must-know, #important, #nice-to-have) and target level (#junior, #mid, #senior) — click any tag to filter.
CS Fundamentals
- Operating Systems Basics must-know junior
- Computer Networking must-know junior
- Database Fundamentals must-know junior
- Object-Oriented Design must-know junior
- Concurrency & Parallelism must-know mid
- Compilers & Runtime Internals important mid
- Indexing & Query Optimization important mid
- Computer Architecture Basics nice-to-have mid
- Distributed Systems Theory must-know senior
Data Structures & Algorithms
- Arrays & Strings must-know junior
- Big-O / Complexity Analysis must-know junior
- Binary Trees & BSTs must-know junior
- Hashing & Hash Maps must-know junior
- Linked Lists must-know junior
- Sorting & Searching Algorithms must-know junior
- Stacks & Queues must-know junior
- Two Pointers & Sliding Window must-know junior
- Dynamic Programming must-know mid
- Graphs — BFS/DFS must-know mid
- Heaps & Priority Queues must-know mid
- Backtracking important mid
- Graphs — Shortest Path important mid
- Graphs — Union-Find & MST important mid
- Greedy Algorithms important mid
- Bit Manipulation nice-to-have mid
- Tries nice-to-have mid
System Design
Each topic has its own deep-dive page under Senior SWE Roadmap → System Design Topics.
- API Design must-know mid
- Caching Strategies must-know mid
- Load Balancing must-know mid
- Scalability Fundamentals must-know mid
- CDN & Content Delivery important mid
- Rate Limiting important mid
- Database Sharding & Replication must-know senior
- Message Queues & Event-Driven Architecture must-know senior
- Observability must-know senior
- Unique ID Generation (Distributed Systems) must-know senior
- Consistent Hashing important senior
- Microservices vs Monolith important senior
Software Engineering Practice
- Code Review Best Practices must-know mid
- Debugging & Profiling must-know mid
- Git Workflows must-know junior
- Testing Strategy must-know mid
- CI/CD Pipelines important mid
- Clean Code & Refactoring important mid
- Design Patterns important mid
- Technical Documentation important senior
Languages & Frameworks
- Primary Language Deep Dive must-know junior
- Language Internals important senior
- Secondary Language Familiarity nice-to-have mid
Security
- AuthN & AuthZ important mid
- OWASP Top 10 important mid
- Encryption & Data Protection Basics nice-to-have mid
Behavioral & Leadership
- Conflict Resolution Stories must-know mid
- Failure & Growth Stories must-know mid
- STAR Method Mastery must-know mid
- Leadership & Ownership Stories must-know senior
- Ambiguity & Prioritization Stories important senior
- Cross-Team Collaboration Stories important senior
- Mentorship Stories important senior